Ivanka Trump’s only physical location morphs into a Trump-branded store after being shut down overnight

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1 year ago

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August 2, 2018

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In a day, Ivanka Trump’s namesake fashion store at Trump Tower, which was the brand’s only physical location, converted into a Trump-branded store, Business Insider first reported. On Tuesday, the store was open and selling Ivanka’s clothes, shoes and accessories. By Wednesday, it sold Trump-branded merchandise.

“Asked about the change on Wednesday, an employee told Business Insider that Ivanka’s brand had shut down,” according to Business Insider. “The Ivanka brand’s logo was scrubbed from the glass windows outside of the store and replaced by a Trump Store logo. Trump-branded goods lined the shelves that contained Ivanka-branded items the day before.”

“Online sales of the Ivanka Trump brand sold at Amazon.com, Macy’s Inc., Bloomingdale’s and Zappos.com fell nearly 55% in the 12 months to June, compared with the year-earlier period, according to Rakuten Intelligence, which gathers email receipts from 5.5 million U.S. consumers,” The Wall Street Journal reported. And, as Axios reported, a daily consumer perception survey conducted by YouGov, found that out of more than 1,600 brands, “both the Trump Hotels and Ivanka Trump brands fall in the bottom 10.”

However, it appears that poor sales wasn’t the only factor motivating the president’s eldest daughter to shut down her business. There was also the issue of conflict of interest. (After Nordstrom dropped Ivanka’s line, the president tweeted that the company had treated her “unfairly.” And, in a television interview last year, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told viewers on “Fox & Friends”: “This is just a wonderful line. . . I own some of it—I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody, you can find it online.”)

While Ivanka had formally parted ways from her fashion business in the spring of 2017, she still owned the brand, received a multimillion-dollar annual income from it, The Wall Street Journal reported, and wore her namesake brand repeatedly — notably while photographed in the White House during meetings, press conferences and other official capacities, effectively acting as a walking billboard.

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Yet, “In an effort to minimize conflicts between her duties as a White House adviser and her financial interests as a business owner, the 36-year-old Ms. Trump has placed her company, IT Collection LLC, in a trust run by family members, just as her father, President Donald Trump, has done with his businesses,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “She receives certain financial information and a share of the profits, but says she doesn’t participate in management.”

When sharing the news to the Ivanka Trump staff about the business shutting down, Ivanka said the move was something she had been thinking about in the past few months, after growing frustrated by the restrictions imposed, as part of the IT Collection LLC, The Wall Street Journal reported. Among these restrictions is the inability to forge new foreign deals.

A representative for the brand told Business Insider that Ivanka’s line will still be produced and sold by licensing partners.

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Trump’s new top economic adviser

In a 2016 interview with Salon, economic commentator Larry Kudlow, who has been named a top economic adviser to President Donald Trump, opened up about his plans for economic growth, tax rates and trade. “What’s killing us today is high business tax rates,” Kudlow said on “Salon Talks” in October 2016. “Our tax laws are arcane. We double and triple tax corporations. That’s why they keep their money overseas.” On international trade: “It’s not Mexico that bothers me, it’s China that really bothers me.” Kudlow said. “They lie, cheat and steal, and they do it on a daily basis.” On Trump: “I’m not as hawkish as he is. I’m more a free trader,” he said. Watch the interview above to hear about how Kudlow first met Trump.

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… then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We’ve launched a weekly podcast, “We’ve Got Issues,” focused on issues, not tweets. Unlike other news sites, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. We’re not part of a conglomerate, or a project of venture capital bros. From unflinching coverage of racism, to revealing efforts to erode our rights, Raw Story will continue to expose hypocrisy and harm. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

Ex-prosecutor demands congressional investigation after latest report on the FBI and Brett Kavanaugh

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